


Once Upon A Dream

by Mellowyellowdiamonds



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), olicity - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Olicity AU hijinks, Oliver and his hopeless heart eyes, long suffering Diggle, meet cute that keeps on going, peculiar multi chapter story where nothing bad ever happens to them, pure fluff, silly Oliver, thank goodness Felicity is the smart one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-20 23:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11931903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellowyellowdiamonds/pseuds/Mellowyellowdiamonds
Summary: An Olicity meet cute where Oliver falls head first for our charming IT girl and comes up with a series of messy plans to woo her. Meanwhile Dig thinks there is a much simpler and sane way to get the girl.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Guys
> 
> This was originally meant to be a one shot in my one shot collection posted here:
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/10760112/chapters/23861511
> 
> However it grew and grew and has taken on a life of it's own as some of you (Nikilynn and kidym88) seem to like it quite a bit. Every chapter is happy and every chapter ends happy so this fic will always be marked as "Complete" until I come up with more shenanigans to add to it.
> 
> For those of you who have read this already, just jump straight to chapter 4! That's your new update!

It was one of those mornings, another unremarkable day in what was shaping out to be an equally unremarkable year. Oliver strode into Verdant feeling like he was stuck in a loop. To anyone on the outside looking in, it seemed like he had it all. Doting parents, an extensive trust fund, a feisty little sister whom he adored and although it had taken a long time to finally get there, a thriving business which he enjoyed operating. Still now in his early thirties, Oliver wondered if this was as good as it was going to get. Sometimes Oliver felt like he was having an early mid life crisis. He loved his family and friends, was proud of his successful business, yet he was well aware that his life distinctly lacked color, vibrancy and joy.

Tommy had crudely offered his unwelcome two cents, as he always did, citing that the reason for Oliver’s crisis was the fact that he hadn’t gotten laid in well over six months despite owning the hottest nightclub in Starling City. Sometimes he wondered if Tommy had a point. He certainly wasn’t lacking in opportunities or offers but Oliver truly felt that those days were far behind him. All the women he met were the same, their faces all-blurring into each other. He wanted something else. He didn’t want to be in lust, to have a quick meaningless f#ck that would temporarily satisfy an urge and then repeat the same cycle over and over again. For once in his life Oliver wanted to feel giddy about someone. Of course all this was ridiculous when he actually thought about it. He wasn’t the type to feel giddy. He had been loved by and possibly loved a rare few women in his day but he did not do giddy.

Letting out one last sigh and vowing to shake off his broody mood, Oliver headed into his office. John had texted earlier to warn him that Smoak Technologies, the IT consultancy company they had hired was sending a consultant over to upgrade all their computers and accounting systems. Someone by the name of Cisco Ramon was due to start with Oliver’s office computer before working on Verdant’s systems. Security of any type was John’s domain and Oliver had intended to make himself known to the consultant in case they had any questions, before sitting down to go through his paperwork.

***

_I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream_

_I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam_

_And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem_

_But if I know you, I know what you'll do_

_You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream_  

The voice was sweet, melodic and rang out like a clear bell in his office. Oliver was familiar with the song, having sat through the Sleeping Beauty movie and just about every other Disney princess movie with Thea at least ten times before. He hadn’t heard that song for years and hadn’t imagined any situation where he’d be hearing that song again. 

Oliver stopped and let out a gasp, his heart beating rapidly for no good reason. There was certainly no threat, the person, girl whoever she was, was singing a Disney song for goodness sakes. He chastised himself to get a grip and approached the source of singing, which was coming from, underneath his desk.

The singer was oblivious to his presence, having now moved onto merrily humming the tune. Oliver glanced down and felt his breath hitched as he noticed a pair of slim, toned and entirely too sexy for Disney, legs stuck out from under his desk, kicking and swaying around in time with the tune being hummed. No one with legs like that should have such a sweet and charming voice. For a moment he considered saying nothing and just enjoying the show and the view but he was no longer the playboy of yesteryear and there was a part of him that was absolutely desperate to make a good impression on the owner of the angelic voice and sinful legs.

“Cisco Ramon?” he asked gingerly with an air of nervousness and excitement that he hadn’t felt in such a long time. For some reason he felt like he had a world of expectations hinged on the next few moments, yet there was a serene part of him that told him no matter what, he was not going to be disappointed by this encounter.

“Oh hello there,” a cheerful voice rang out, as the owner of Disney Princess voice shuffled out from under the desk and stood up to greet him. “Felicity Smoak, not Cisco Ramon, I hope you’re not too upset. Cisco had some personal matters he had to attend to suddenly this morning so I popped in to upgrade your systems instead. I’m his boss, the owner of Smoak Technologies by the way so really you’re getting a great bang for your buck.”

Felicity winced as the last sentence left her mouth. That idiom didn’t sound quite right. Curse her for her inappropriate use of idioms but really the drool worthy handsome client had caught her off guard when he materialized like a ninja out of nowhere, while she had been singing Disney songs to her heart’s content no less.

Oliver’s face broke into a smile as he found himself face to face with the little sunbeam that had been missing all his life. Said sunbeam was wearing an emerald green pencil skirt, showcasing a delectable derrière, the best he had ever laid eyes on and a white blouse with a little bow on it’s collar. She had the sexy librarian thing down pat, except that she was bubbly, her eyes twinkling and full of spirit. At a teeny tiny five foot five inches or so she was petite, her little elfin face, framed by a mass of slightly untamed curly hair that was as charming it’s owner.

“A great bang?” Oliver raised his eyebrows, flashing her an amused smirk, his heart going berserk again as she flushed bright pink, her big aquamarine eyes going wide behind her black framed glasses.

“NO banging! There will be no banging whatsoever, although I’m sure you would be a great bang seeing as you look the way you do. Oh my god did I just sexually harass a new client. Did I just say the words sexually harass? And I will stop speaking in 3, 2, 1.”

She slammed her eyes shut for a second before opening them abruptly again to offer him a soft small hand as she smiled at him appealingly, having seemingly recovered from whatever nerves she was experiencing. “Felicity Smoak, Smoak Technologies at your service Mr. Queen. Mr Diggle signed us last week and I can assure you that our cyber security systems are second to none. We’re so pleased to have you sign with us and let me assure you there is no IT problem that is too big or too small for us. We are a small full service company aimed at fulfilling all your needs.”

“Fulfilling all my needs?” he teased, not unkindly, taking the hand she had offered him. To his surprise for such a tiny little person, she had a solid grip and a very firm handshake.

“All of your IT needs Mr. Queen,” she grinned at him, ignoring his attempt to wind her up. Normally Felicity would not take kindly to anyone poking fun at Smoak Technologies, her baby, but his devastating blue eyes had a hint of mirth in them and they had crinkled at the corners so appealingly and kindly, she was certain he meant no ill will. However she could not resist tilting her head to gaze at him before and adding slyly in a whispery voice, “Anything more would be unprofessional.”

Felicity stifled a laugh as she watched him stare at her, looking a little lost. Clearly after her earlier babbling he didn’t think she could give as good as she got. She had heard various stories about the infamous Oliver Queen over the years and had not paid any mind to them. When and where would she ever cross paths with Oliver Queen? It was none of her business what the rich got up to in their spare time.

Still she had been thrilled when John Diggle, Verdant’s head of security had signed her company to take care of Verdant’s computing systems. Although she did not much care about Oliver Queen’s personal life and past, she did know that Verdant was the hottest and most profitable club in Starling (Felicity made it a priority to privately “check out” the financial situation of any clients she signed, lest they fail to pay up on their invoices, a mistake she had learned from in the very early days of setting up her business). There was talk that he was looking to expand beyond Verdant and a client like that was a big fish for her little company to land. Besides it appeared that Verdant was not a business which quibbled over fees and charges. She had slugged them with a hefty (but fair) fee structure. Handsome Adonis or not, a girl had to eat and grow her little empire.

“I’ve finished with your computer in here. Whoever set up your previous system should be shot! Unnecessary wires and cables everywhere. I’m going to install our security software on all your other machines now and then give you and Mr. Diggle a run through of it when he arrives. We also offer a free staff training session so when you’re ready to gather all your staff, you can call book us in and either Cisco or myself will come over and train your staff for you as well.”

She smiled a bright, friendly smile at him and tucked a business card into his hand before walking off to seek out the next computer to work on, leaving Oliver feeling a little dazed as he tried to gather his bearings. That little innocuous encounter had affected him deeply and suddenly Oliver felt alive again. He wasn’t having a midlife crisis. He had just been waiting for this adorable vivacious creature and now he had finally found her.

With a spring in his step Oliver made a mental note to ask her to lunch when she was done. He was going to keep it casual, ask her if she was peckish and lead her to the kitchen on the side where they prepared Verdant’s small bites. Then he himself would whip her up a quick lunch. He totally had this under control.

*** 

John Diggle rolled his eyes and huffed in disbelief as Oliver asked one obtuse question after another in the hopes of prolonging his interaction with their new IT consultant. Apparently Cisco Ramon could not make it and in walked one Felicity Smoak who unbeknownst to her was wreaking havoc with Oliver Queen’s heart.

“So the orange alert means that I should ring you up right away?” Oliver asked looking hopeful and praying that someone would hack their systems soon. Anything to see Felicity again.

“Nono you don’t need to do anything. I’m just explaining what you need to do if you want an overview on what the program is monitoring. We scan your systems constantly on our end and if there is any threat we will log in remotely and obliterate the threat ourselves.” She had been explaining the new system to him for a good hour and Felicity could simply not understand why he had so much trouble with it. He was clearly an intelligent man and one does not run a successful business like Verdant by being stupid so Felicity found herself at a loss as to why they seemed to be going around in circles. 

“Put it this way Oliver, aside from running a training session with your staff, you need never see us again, unless you need a physical upgrade of your systems. Everything can be done online. That’s one of the core elements of how we add value to your business. No need to waste your time scheduling in live meetings with us, no need to waste your time or your staff’s time waiting around to accommodate us as we troubleshoot your systems. After today everything will be done automatically.” Felicity smiled at both men, clearly very proud of her business model.

“So when would I see you again?” Oliver blurted out with a slight wail in his voice, causing John to face palm himself silently while rolling his eyes.

Felicity blinked, peering at her handsome new client rather confusedly. If she wasn’t lil old Felicity Smoak and he wasn’t Oliver Queen, dashing billionaire, man about town, she would suspect that he wanted to see her again for non-business related purposes. There was something about the way in which he was looking at her, that vaguely reminded her of the heart eyes portrayed in the cartoons she used to watch when she was little. Still they were who they were, and she wasn’t going to dwell on any fanciful notions of Oliver Queen harboring some sort of crush on her after only interacting with her for a few hours.

“As I said before we try to offer any number of IT services to our clients so if you have trouble with any of your computers, smart phones, heck even your home computer system, please feel free to ring us and either Cisco or myself will come out to assist you.”

“You mean if my Iphone stops working you’ll help me?” Oliver asked, perking up, an idea brewing in his head. Diggle saw the hopeful spark that crossed Oliver’s face and proceeded to shake his head disapprovingly, shooting him a warning look.

“Yeeees we can but keep in mind you should read your Fees and Charges Agreement that you signed with us. At the hourly rate that we’re charging you’re better off bringing your phone to Tech Village if you have a problem with it. Happy to help though if you feel like you need our services.”

She wondered why on earth anyone would want to pay her rates to debug their iPhone but Felicity wasn’t going to say no if he wanted to give her business more work. She supposed it must be a rich people thing, not wanting to line up at Tech Village with the common plebs. Still Oliver Queen had been lovely to her and had even made her a delicious fancy croque monsieur for lunch. He was also extremely easy on the eye. She did not find the prospect of working closely with him objectionable at all, quite the opposite in fact.

She powered down her laptop and gathered her briefcase, which was filled with tools. Before heading out she shook their hands warmly. “It’s been great meeting both of you and thank you for lunch Oliver. Please don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything.”

With that Felicity Smoak floated out of the door, leaving a smitten Oliver Queen staring at her long after she had vanished from view.

“I like her John! You made a good call hiring her firm.”

“Ya don’t say,” John muttered as shook his head at the infatuated fool standing next to him.

*** 

Oliver felt absurd as the butterflies fluttered in his stomach nervously. He wondered if he was going crazy. Still he hadn’t ever felt like this his whole life and he owed it to himself to explore this feeling. Or the alternative was that maybe he had just lost his mind. Surely there were better ways to garner a girl’s attention than this. Still she wasn’t just any ordinary girl and in order to win over a remarkable girl like that one needed to take drastic measures. Glancing around nervously as if he were about to commit a crime, Oliver dropped his iPhone into an extra large latte before reaching for his office landline to dial Felicity’s number.


	2. Chapter 2

Oliver peered at his phone marinating in his latte as the landline dialed out. Fortunately it only rang three times before Felicity picked up.

"Smoak Technologies, Felicity speaking,” her voice rang out pleasantly through the receiver. He wondered why she answered her phone like that. Then his heart sank as it dawned on him she must have handed him her business phone number not her personal one. He wasn’t even on personal number status he thought morosely to himself. Fortunately a little voice in his head (one that sounded suspiciously like John Diggle) reminded him that he had only met Felicity today and that she was first and foremost a businesswoman. This was part of the reason why he was so attracted to her. She was charming and attractive certainly, but there had been something about the way she had so earnestly plugged her business and rattled off about computing terminology that Oliver respected and found so very refreshing. So it made perfect sense that she would only hand out her business phone number. Her interest in him was purely for business purposes. It was up to him to convince her otherwise.

“Felicity? Hi It’s Oliver Queen. We met this morning.” He smiled to himself as he recalled their meeting earlier that morning. Maybe she wouldn’t date a client. Verdant was a big client for her and she wasn’t going to jeopardize her beloved business by going out with a client. It dawned on Oliver that he couldn’t just directly asked her out like he had planned. He had to find a way to get close to her, to make her find him as appealing as he found her until the time was ripe for him to make a move.

“Oh hi Oliver. What can I do for you? I didn’t get an alerts on Verdant so I assume you’re having a personal computing crisis,” she spoke cheerfully. He could hear some clanging and clattering in the background and wondered what she was up to.

“I…err…um spilt a latte on my iPhone. I need help with it. Urgently,” he stumbled awkwardly.

“Oh that’s no good,” Felicity clucked sympathetically before launching straight into business mode. “Can I ask you what model iPhone you have Oliver?” 

“Err iPhone 7 I think,” he replied wondering what this had to do with anything. Phones died when they met liquid. It was one of the surest things in life that he could depend on.

“That’s great news Oliver,” Felicity responded sounding suspiciously pleased about something. “You see the iPhone 7s are water resistant to a certain point. Not that the Apple warranty covers them from water damage and they won’t go all out claiming that their phones are waterproof but if you just dry it off with a lint free cloth, tap the phone to remove any access water and leave it to dry it should be fine. Leave it for five hours before you plug it in to charge. So there you go! No worries at all. Lucky you own the phone that you do because most other models wouldn’t be so forgiving.”

“But…but…it’s been soaking in a latte,” Oliver responded stupidly. The sheer disappointment of knowing that she wasn’t going to come out to fix his phone was too much to bear; he couldn’t keep his story straight.

“I thought you said you spilt a latte on it?” Felicity asked suspiciously.

“Did I? Sorry I meant I dropped it into a latte. By accident of course. Completely by accident.”

“Oh that’s not the end of the world either,” Felicity responded calmly. He couldn’t tell whether she believed his story or not but she was acting very professional about it. “Tests have shown that you can actually drag it along and swim 10 laps with it, without major damage to the phone. Just do the same thing I told you earlier. Your speakers may never be the same but it should work just fine. Meanwhile I will suggest that you back up all your content, just in case the liquid does reduce the lifespan of your phone later on.”

Oliver suddenly felt completely helpless. He had been banking on this to work. What did he have to do to get Felicity out to see him again? For a brief moment he considered dumping the contents of his latte on his laptop but he had already used the latte trick today and she was going to smell a rat if that latte got around to do a number on all his electronics.

Oliver stared out morosely as he pondered what to say to her next when his luck took another dive as John strolled into his office and was confronted with the view of his phone soaking in the latte. John’s eyebrows rose so high and he glared at Oliver so hard, his eyeballs threatened to fall out. Judgmental bastard. Just because he was older and had been married for a thousand years with twins did not give him the right to judge Oliver on his romantic woes. John Diggle wasn’t the one trying to navigate the world of wooing and dating adorable business minded blondes with beautiful voices. He glared at John defiantly and resumed speaking to Felicity.

“I err don’t know how to backup my content. Sorry I’m one of those people who don’t use technology. Ludwigs or something. Is that what you call them?

“Luddites, we call them Luddites,” Felicity laughed at him. “I’m guessing you want me to come out rather than line up at Tech Village? Do you know if you have iCloud yet?”

“No!” Oliver lied through his teeth. He had an iCloud account. He had never used it but he did have one that Thea had set up for him. But he figured that if he  _didn’t_  have one, Felicity would have to spend more time setting one up for him. He did a mental fist pump. This was working out after all. Meanwhile John had settled down on the couch in Oliver’s office, with his arms tucked behind his head and was shooting Oliver a series of “You so incredibly stupid” judgy faces. 

Ignoring John’s lack of support, Oliver chugged on happily with his crusade. “Any chance you can pop by my place to help? I err haven’t eaten dinner yet so if you haven’t eaten either I can whip us up something while you work on backing up the phone.”

“Are you sure you need your phone that urgently?” Felicity asked sounding puzzled. “Because isn’t this almost peak hour at Verdant for you? Don’t you have to do your dashing club owner thing and oh I don’t know dance with the ladies or something?”

“I haven’t danced with the ladies in a long time Felicity. Still trying to find the one lady I want to dance with.” He winced as soon as the words left his mouth. That sounded douchey and yet oddly pathetic at the same time. John was now shaking his head in disbelief and burying his face in his hands. Oliver resisted the childish urge to stick his tongue out at the other man. “Thea and Tommy take care of most of the night operations. I do the paperwork during the day.” 

“I never figured you for a paperwork kind of guy Oliver.” He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it but she may have sounded pleased.

“You know what’s really weird. I just burnt my dinner and was about to call my local take out place to put in an order when you rang me. So it’s kind of fortuitous that you called. Free meal,” she giggled gleefully.

“Can I come pick you up?” Oliver asked eager to know where she lived.

“I’m a big girl Oliver. Give me your address and I’ll drive to your place.”

“But I’ve troubled you so much already. Least I could do is come and pick you up,” he persisted. John was now waving his hands, frantically making the stop sign at him.

“Tell you what Oliver, why don’t you give me your address, wipe your phone and leave it to dry, get dinner started and I’ll make my way there as soon as I clean up this mess in my kitchen a bit. And by clean I mean dump the burnt contents of my would be dinner into the bin and wipe down my benches.”

Oliver didn’t know why but he beamed with amusement at the thought that she couldn’t cook. So it looked like they had complimentary traits. He was bad at technology but a great cook and she was a computer whizz who couldn’t rummage up a meal. And they were both business people trying to grow and run their own businesses. It was destiny. Extremely well suited, complimentary destiny but destiny nevertheless. He was lured in by her voice from under a desk after all.

“Yes Madam,” he replied, barely able to contain the smile on his face or in his voice. “Any preferences or allergies?”

“I’m Jewish but don’t keep kosher so nothing to worry about except my peanut allergy.” 

“Okay, noted. No peanuts.” Oliver was pleased that he had yet learned another new fact about her. He rattled off his address, bid her farewell and hung up the phone, barely able to contain his joy even though John was now looking from him to his marinating iPhone, still with the incredulous judgmental look on his face.

“Don’t look at me like that John. Didn’t that heart of yours beat with a crazy love for Lyla once?” Oliver glowered at his friend, feeling semi embarrassed that he had been caught purposely soaking his phone in a latte.

“You better take that thing out of the coffee before it does die for real and she just tells you to buy a new one.” John informed him calmly. “And my heart still beats with plenty of love for Lyla but it ain’t the kind of love which involves destroying electronics to get her attention. Lots of love, none of the crazy.”

“I can’t just ask her out, she’ll refuse because I’m a client,” Oliver finally blurted out. He didn’t know why but it irritated him that John thought his actions were unnecessary and irrational. Despite feeling like he was well within his rights to do what he did, he didn’t want the other man judging him dammit! There was logic to his perceived madness!

“Oliver I’ve known you for a long time and suffice to say you are pretty charmed by this girl. I’ve also seen what women are like around you to know that Felicity is definitely interested. Her eyes were sparkling while she was eating lunch with you. She laughed at your very not-funny attempts at humour and looked like she genuinely found them to be hilarious. Girl likes you. So why don’t you quit trying to destroy random technology and just ask her out. Tell her it won’t impact her business in any way and she can talk shop with either myself or Tommy when she needs to discuss business matters.” 

“What if she says no? Then she’ll shut the door on us completely and I won’t ever get a chance to show her who I am and what I’m like.”

“She won’t say no,” John sighed, still attempting to sooth his idiot friend. Boy really had a flair for the dramatics. He had been going through a brooding phase lately and it looked like he was going to find the dumbest, most complicated and roundabout way he could to win Felicity Smoak over.

“I was in the military for ten years Oliver. It was part of my job to read people and situations and I’m telling you that Felicity likes you as much you like her. You don’t see her twinkling like a little star at me do you? And I’ve met with her several times before she met you today.”

“I can’t take that risk John. I’ve got to make sure she really likes me first, like she could see me that way and maybe feel something for me before I swoop in and ask her out.”

“So your plan is to exploit your business relationship with her and trick her into date type situations, mainly by destroying random portable devices that you own, so that she’ll fall for you instead of just asking her out and telling her you can separate your business dealings with each other by going through a third party like myself or Tommy?” John asked shaking his head. God give him the strength to deal with this imbecile. It was like Oliver wanted to create his own romantic comedy complete with idiotic hijinks. 

“It sounds silly when you put it that way but if you were in my shoes you’d understand.” Oliver tried to sound as dignified as he could, although an uncomfortable thought had crept into his head that maybe John did have a point.

He picked up his phone, gave it a wipe with a bunch of tissues he grabbed from his desk and headed out the door, turning to bid goodbye to John. “I’ve got to go now! I gotta get home and get something started for dinner before she arrives. At least wish me luck with tonight John.”

“You don’t need luck to make Felicity like you. You need luck to stop you from coming up with more stupid plans. Just ask her out Oliver!” John shouted after him as he sprinted out of the building, his mind racing as he catalogued the contents of his fridge and pondered what he could possibly clobber up for dessert.

***

Oliver sprinted to his door as soon as the doorbell rang. While running around to prepare dinner he couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that his idea had actually worked. For all of his speeches and warnings John was definitely wrong. Felicity was just outside his front door. She had come to help him with his phone and eat dinner with him. His plan was working brilliantly.

“Hi!” He was greeted by a smiling Felicity, dressed in an electric blue flared dress, one that was quite short he noticed as he casually let his eyes wonder discreetly down the length of her fabulous legs before yanking his face up to meet her eyes. This was only their second meeting, it wouldn’t do to look like a pervert. He needed to stick to the plan. Get Felicity to bond with him, like him, like him so much that she can’t reject him, date him and then he was home free to stare at her legs or any other assets he wanted. He just needed to stick to the plan.

“Hi! You have perfect timing. Just like you did this morning,” he said smiling at her. She gave him a slightly puzzled look as he leaned in to kiss her hello and stuck out her hand instead of offering him her cheek. Disappointed, his face fell as he shook her hand politely. Felicity as if sensing his disappointment gave his hand an extra friendly squeeze before shoving a bunch of yellow roses in his direction. 

“I would offer to bring dessert but since I’m here because I burnt my dinner, and you made such a fancy grilled cheese this morning I didn’t bother attempting to bring dessert. I thought it would be safest to bring you these instead. They look pretty and yellow is such a safe and friendly colour without the romantic subtext of other colours.” She paused and smiled at him nervously. Oliver was heartened by the fact that she seemed just as nervous as he was.

“Thank you Felicity. I can’t say I’ve ever been given flowers by anyone before.” He ushered her into his somewhat sterile and extremely tidy living room and before his nerves could take over, Oliver grabbed Felicity’s hand and led her into the kitchen. She shot him a surprised look but followed him readily enough and didn’t make any attempts to pull her hand away.

Oliver guided her over to his bar bench and let his hand linger on hers one last time before he grudgingly let it go. Felicity gave him a puzzled look but didn’t say anything and seated herself on the bar bench as she watched him begin to plate up their dinner of roast chicken thighs and vegetables.

“Give me your phone,” Felicity held out her hand. That soft warm hand again. He just wanted to grab it and hold it all night.

“Dinner is almost ready,” Oliver answered thinking he’d get them eating and chatting first before he would have to tell a few white lies about the state of his phone and his iCloud account.

“Oh it’ll only take me a few minutes,” Felicity informed him as she spun around her stool taking in the sight of his kitchen. “Your kitchen is really nice! So homey but with all this fancy schmancy machines that you look like you know how to use! It looks like it’s been lived in compared to your living room. I’m the complete opposite. Living room looks lived in because I’m a couch potato on the weekends and I code on my lounge most evenings. The kitchen and I have a terse relationship at best. I beautifully decorated it. It gives me the illusion that I can cook but sadly the reality is very different.”

Oliver chuckled at her statement and gave himself a mental pat on the back when he noticed that Felicity had spotted the lemon bars he had cooling on a rack on the counter and was gazing at them longingly.

“Those are for dessert,” he said, handing her his phone. She gave the lemon bars one last lingering look before turning to his phone and started tapping away.

*** 

“That was delicious,” Felicity smiled at him as she settled comfortably onto his couch. They had moved to the couch in his living room now for dessert. It had taken her all of ten minutes to create an iCloud account for him and back up the ten photos of Thea and his friends, as well as some other files he had on his phone. With all the nonsense that he had concocted out of the way, they had been free during dinner to talk about anything they wanted. 

He learned that Felicity originally hailed from Vegas and was a certified genius. She graduated from MIT at the tender age of 19 and went on to work for Kord Industries for four years before resigning and launching Smoak Technologies with Cisco her friend/employee. Oliver found that he owed a huge debt to this Cisco who was currently embroiled in a tumultuous long distance relationship, which was the reason why he had skipped out this morning, making Felicity fill in for him instead. 

“Funnily enough I was trying to create a similar dinner when you called. The one that I burnt and everything stuck to the foil for some reason. OMG this is soooooo good,” Felicity crooned as she stuck a forkful of lemon bar into her mouth. Her cheeks were a soft pink, her eyes half lidded and her soft pink lips were slightly parted as she savoured the dessert. Oliver found himself staring and wondering just what would happen if he leaned over and planted a kiss on those incredibly soft looking lips.

Instead he reached over and placed a hand on her bare shoulder, the effect of her soft skin against his rough fingers startling him momentarily however he managed to pull himself together long enough to offer her the remainder of the lemon bars to take home.

“Oh thank you so much! I could eat these forever! Last time I made some I ended up with something that tasted like sour scrambled eggs.” Felicity beamed at him delightedly and threw her arms around his shoulders giving him an enthusiastic hug. Oliver leaned into the hug and sighed happily before she pulled away, blushing a lovely shade of crimson.

“Sorry that was terribly unprofessional of me,” she muttered, her face still bright pink as she tried to avoid his gaze. “We’ve just met this morning and you’re a new client. I’m…uh…I better get going. Thank you for the lovely meal Oliver I had a lovely time. Your phone looks fine and everything is backed up to the Cloud even if it decides to die on you. No more lattes for you in the near future! At least not near that phone.” She made a move to scramble off the couch and grabbed her bag with Oliver watching on helplessly. It had been going so well.

“Felicity err can I drive you home,” he asked awkwardly handing her a container of lemon bars.

“Oliver I drove here myself remember,” she smiled at him, looking less flustered than she did a few minutes ago. It seemed that they were taking turns being nervous.

Oliver ground his teeth and willed himself to get a grip. He was a thirty something year old man for goodness sakes and here he was stumbling around clumsily like a fifteen year old trying to ask the prettiest, nicest and smartest girl to the school dance. You can do this he cheered himself on.

“No I can’t let you drive yourself home and walk to your front door by yourself. What if someone is lurking around in the dark corners?”

Felicity laughed. It was such a genuine, happy sound and her eyes were gazing at him with what he could only construe as a somewhat fond expression before she responded. “Oliver my street is very well lit and I have a Taser in my bag. I’ll take it out and carry it to my front door if that makes you feel better.” 

“You carry a Taser around with you?” he asked giving her a shocked look. He hadn’t expected soft, sunny Felicity with her bright and sparkling demeanour to carry a Taser around.

“Well I was headed to the apartment of man I just met this morning and I hardly knew anything about you at all so I thought it was for the best if I packed my Taser with me. You can never tell you know.” There was such conviction in Felicity’s voice and she looked so earnest, Oliver could not help but internally swoon despite the fact that she had just informed him she was wary that he might have been a creeper.

“Well I hope you feel like you know me well enough after tonight Felicity,” he smiled at her. Before she came over tonight he had run a few scenarios in his head and had banked on dropping a few charming “Ollie” smiles at her but as soon as he saw Felicity again Oliver realized there was no need. She made him want to smile. Just a happy, sunshine and rainbows genuine smile. There was no need to try and train himself to smile at her in any particular way because he just couldn’t help looking happy around her.

“Oh yes, you’re hot and a very good cook.” Felicity slapped his shoulder breezily before realizing what she had said. “I meant not! Not a creepy guy! You are NOT a creepy guy and a very good cook.”

Her faced was flushing bright pink again and this time Oliver couldn’t resist bending down to kiss her warm pink cheek. She smelled like lemon bars and butter and the effect of his stubble against her very soft cheek was intoxicating. He’d have to be really gentle so she wouldn’t get beard burn since her skin was so soft.

“Promise you’ll text me when you get home?” he asked, still wishing she’d let him follow her home his car or something but realizing that would come off as over protective and overbearing.

“Promise.” She flashed him one last sweet smile before they headed out his door so he could walk her to her car.

***

Unknown: Home safe, doors locked and gorging on the lemon bars you packed me. I may only have a few left. By the way this is Felicity on my personal number.

O: You need to try my chocolate soufflés. Will make them for you next time I have another technology related incident.

F: No food or drinks near your electronics!

O: Or you could just ring me next time you burn your dinner or have no dinner again.  

F: I might take you up on that offer if you’re not careful. Have only 3 lemon bars left. Need to stop! 

O: You have to come over for the chocolate soufflés. Lemon bars are nothing compared to the soufflés.

F: Night Oliver! Sweet dreams 

O: You too. By the way Felicity just like the song, your prince will definitely love you at once if you dream of him tonight ;) 

F: Haha I didn’t think you were capable of a fancy smiley!

O: I am a man many of many talents Felicity.


	3. Chapter 3

Felicity pouted and put on her mopey face as she glanced at her sad looking sandwich. There was no accurate description for it other than sad. The more she looked at it the more it made her feel sad and today was not a sad day. Today she had managed to sign on two more clients. If the trial period was successful (which she was confident it would be since failure was not an option and Felicity would rather go without coffee for a year than lose a reasonable client) she would need to start looking into hiring another consultant for Smoak Technologies. The very thought sent a warm and fuzzy thrill down to the tip of her toes. Her baby was expanding. Maybe it would be feasible to look at renting a small office space in the new year. 

Felicity glanced at the soggy chicken sandwich with its wilted looking pieces of ice berg lettuce staring back at her, causing her to lose any enthusiasm for lunch. Truth be told she had been frugal when she grabbed the sandwich from the premade section of the grocery store. She was doing well but she was by no means well off. It had seemed like such an indulgence to go out to lunch at a restaurant alone, even if it was to celebrate her success today. 

As fate would have it Felicity’s private phone chimed just as she was about to take a tentative bite of the unappealing sandwich, signaling that Oliver was dialing her. Felicity perked up, unconsciously fluffed her hair and patted her curls before picking up the call. She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with Oliver and his numerous questionable issues with technology but she knew that a run in with Oliver usually equated to good food. 

***

He was either interested in her and making up ridiculous excuses to see her again or he was just a genuinely daft man who needed her help, Felicity thought to herself as she pulled into Verdant’s parking lot. Fortunately she had the rest of the day free and she was going to use it to address poor Oliver’s issues whichever way they swung. 

Felicity felt slightly grateful that she had opted to wear a bright aqua embroidered skater dress (with pockets!) today despite some hesitation this morning about whether aqua was a bit too vivid for meeting new potential clients. In the end she had opted to be herself and being herself meant wearing that little splash of colour. She had covered up the more decorative top half of the dress with a blazer but now as she headed off to meet Oliver Queen, Felicity dumped the blazer in her car to show off her dress in it’s full glory.

Felicity had barely reached the front entrance when Oliver appeared at the door, beaming at her shyly while steering her into the building by her shoulders, generally being altogether much too touchy feely and pleased looking for someone who had genuine technology related problems.

He led her into his office and pointed at his monitor, which was pitch black.

“I…uh… I don’t know what happened. I came in this morning and it wouldn’t turn on. It’s been a terrible nuisance. Couldn’t do any of the accounts or paperwork.”

Felicity flashed him an amused smile before responding. “Then why did you wait until lunch to call me Oliver? You could have called the business number. I would have sent Cisco out or at least help you troubleshoot it over the phone.” As she finished her sentence, Felicity tilted her head slightly, waiting to see what excuse he was going to come up with next.

“I…umm…I thought you would be more likely to be free at lunch. So I um waited until lunchtime. You don’t have to leave here for an afternoon meeting do you?” He suddenly looked a bit panicked, wondering if she did have to rush off to another meeting, which would foil his plans to spend time with her.

“Looks like you’re going to get lucky today Oliver. I’m free for the rest of this afternoon. I’m all yours,” Felicity smiled at him before wincing once she had the chance to process the exact words uttered. Oliver went bright red and Felicity felt her cheeks burn as they stared at each other awkwardly.

Felicity suddenly burst out laughing as it dawned on her how ridiculous the situation really was. She was a grown adult with her own business and he was The Oliver Queen for goodness sakes. She took a deep breath and spoke calmly. “My lack of breakfast and lunch is obviously getting to me, I didn’t mean it that way. I am free for the rest of the afternoon and can help you fix any technological issues you may have. I’m here if you need to ask me anything. Is there anything you would like to ask me Oliver?”

She gave him an encouraging but knowing look, hoping that it would prompt him into some sort of direct action that didn’t involve him running around, wreaking havoc on technology. One glance at his computer and Felicity knew that someone had simply gone up to it and yanked each and every cable out leaving a dead screen and a machine that wouldn’t boot up because it wasn’t actually connected to anything.

“Chicken Kiev?” he asked her brightly, as if he had not caught onto her hint at all. “We had a Russian housekeeper when I was younger, she taught me her authentic recipe. I…uh…fortunately have all the ingredients ready in the Verdant kitchen today. How about you fix that while I go and make us some Kiev?” Oliver waved at the mess of cables on his floor and gave her shoulder yet another squeeze.

Felicity, feeling slightly frustrated by his insistence on being dense frowned at him slightly before ironing out her features to ask him, “Will there be any dessert today or no dessert because it’s lunch?”

“I made apple pie last night and brought some to Verdant. Is that good enough for dessert?” he responded looking pleased with himself.

Because only the very cold hearted or dead (and let’s face it Felicity was neither) could continue to be cross at Oliver Queen dressed in a white shirt and suspenders offering them pie, Felicity felt like it was well within her rights to clap her hands in delight and tug at his left suspender playfully. 

***

Whatever it was that Oliver was up to, at least he had the good sense to carry out his peculiar schemes without Mr. Diggle present, Felicity thought as she polished off her slice of apple pie and ice cream. Felicity liked John Diggle, he had been a joy to negotiate and work with but there was something no nonsense about his attitude that made Felicity feel a great sense of relief that he was not here today to form his silent judgment on this curious ritual she and Oliver were currently engaged in.

Felicity in order to protect her reputation and business had been meticulous to only meet up with Oliver about his “technological issues” outside of business hours in her own time so as to not affect the fee structure between Verdant and Smoak Technologies. Truth be told there was a tiny voice inside Felicity’s head telling her that this was highly unprofessional and that she should quash this nonsense once and for all. However the louder and more insistent voice (the one that Felicity favored) argued that she had spent the best years of her youth buried in MIT and then Kord Industries. She didn’t deal with Oliver in Verdant matters anyway only with John and Tommy. She hadn’t dated anyone for years and here was an eligible single swoon worthy man who apparently wanted to ask her out but was feeling too nervous to do so. Who knew that Oliver Queen could be such a dork. Over her. She owed it to herself to give him a chance.

“I should get going now that all your wires are safely plugged back to where they belong. Thank you for lunch and try to stay out of anymore trouble Oliver.” Felicity hopped down from the bar stool and grabbed her handbag, giving Oliver yet another expectant look, willing him to spit out whatever it was he was trying to ask her instead of causing more trouble. 

Oliver stared at her face (or more precisely her lips) for a few seconds before he finally spoke.

“Home automation,” he declared out of nowhere. “Home automation!”

Felicity closed her eyes and let out a breath preparing herself for his next scheme. “And what is it you would like to know about home automation?” she asked him calmly, a small smile creeping onto her face even though she was well aware she should be frustrated with him by now instead of amused.

“I want to um automate everything in my apartment. Dishwasher, washing machine, fridge, oven, my iron. Can you help me with that Felicity?” A big smile broke out on his face as he suddenly realized he had latched onto a very good idea. “This would be you personally assisting me, nothing to do with Verdant at all. I want to hire you separately to um you know, make my home automatic.”

“Are you sure home automation is for you Oliver?” Felicity asked, suppressing the urge to laugh at his absurd plan. “Because you’re not the most technologically savvy person I know and the last thing you want is to have to sit around and work out how to control your oven using your phone.”

“That’s why I need you. To help me with this home automation stuff. I want to be modern,” he declared, looking pleased with himself. “You can help me every step of the way.” 

“Oh I don’t know,” Felicity teased. “This is disaster written all over it. It is my professional opinion that you should just steer clear of this Oliver.”

“Can’t you at least come for dinner tonight so we can talk it over?” Oliver pleaded. “I’ll make chocolate soufflés.”

“Well if there’s chocolate soufflé involved I guess I can’t say no,” Felicity replied giving his shoulder a jab with her finger. “I really have to go and get some coding done and you have paperwork to do by the look of things. I’ll see you tonight.”

***

Oliver true to form had not bothered to ask her a single word about home automation all night. Instead they had talked about their childhoods, favourite movies, places travelled to, places they hoped to travel to and a whole lot of other playful nonsense none of which had anything to do with the supposed reason why he had invited her over. When the clock hit 11pm, Felicity decided it was time to take matters into her own hands.

“I think I should be getting home now. It’s late and I don’t want to drive home too late at night.”

“Tomorrow is Saturday. You should stay the night!” Oliver blurted out, his eyes widening in horror at what he said.

To his relief Felicity merely smiled at him and responded, “This wasn’t a date Oliver remember. You invited me here to discuss home automation. Which we didn’t discuss at all.” She flashed him a coy smile before adding, “Besides even if it was a date I wouldn’t be staying over on a first date.”

“Err we got side tracked tonight I guess. Can I see you tomorrow to discuss home automation?”

Felicity felt like stamping her foot at him for having the audacity to go through this rim roll again however the urge faded as she observed him standing there in his immaculate apartment, biceps bulging out of his fitted short sleeve shirt with a shy hopeful grin on his face.

Felicity closed the distance between them and pulled his face towards her, planting a soft kiss onto his lips, her nose squishing against his before she pulled away and addressed him calmly her hands still holding his face.

“Oliver I’ve tried not to read too much into it and then I tried to give you the space to make the first move and ask me out but you haven’t so now I’m going to help you along and make things easier for you. Would you like to ask me out? Or alternatively would you like me to ask you out? Because you’re not a candidate for home automation and for both our sakes I think you should stop trying to come up with these strange schemes to seek my help.”

Oliver didn’t respond right away, instead opting to pull her towards him and kiss her senseless for a few minutes. When they both finally came up for air he wrapped both arms around her waist before asking her, “Felicity will you go out to dinner with me tomorrow and will you stay over tonight? I have a spare room.”

Before Felicity could respond he added hopefully, “Crispy waffles for breakfast tomorrow morning if you stay over!”


	4. Chapter 4

“As tempted as I am by your offer, I can’t,” Felicity shook her head regretfully.

“Why ever not?” Oliver asked, his face falling. “You just said you were happy to ask me out a minute ago.”

Realising that he thought she had refused both his offer to stay over and dinner, Felicity quickly smoothed things over by way of pulling him down for another kiss. “Yes to dinner tomorrow night but no to staying over even though I really want waffles for breakfast. I’m sick of cereal and pop tarts every morning.”

“But it’s so late. And I have a perfectly good spare room. Why can’t you stay?” Oliver was practically pleading now.

“It’s more the logistics of the situation Oliver. I have no pajamas here, no toothbrush. I can’t very well just roll into bed in these clothes and then go home the next day. And just so we’re clear on things I’m not a one night stand kind of girl so I’ve never gone to bed at someone’s house and snuck home in my old clothes. I will go home and you can pick me up at 6pm for our dinner date tomorrow.” She smiled at him warmly but her voice was firm, sending him a loud and clear message about who she was and what she expected. Oliver couldn’t help smiling as he gazed at her. So the Disney song-singing girl who believed in prince charming actually had a will of steel and was not shy about laying down the law to him. Somehow that made him want her even more.

“If I can rummage, find a brand new toothbrush and lend you a T shirt to sleep in, will you stay the night? It’ll be fun! Like a sleepover! Then you can have crispy waffles for breakfast tomorrow.” He beamed at her hopefully and Felicity could feel her heart melting as she resisted the urge to pinch herself. Oliver Queen, the Oliver Queen was being a perfect gentleman and begging her to stay for breakfast.

“Well if you put it that way, how can a girl say no?” Felicity finally answered him with an equally brilliant smile on her face. It occurred to her that they were standing in the middle of his living room, grinning so hard at each other; their cheeks must be hurting. She wasn’t sure where this was all going to head but something good was going to come out of this. Felicity could feel it in her heart.

***  
  
“I haven’t done this in such a long time,” Felicity sighed in contentment as she leapt onto the king sized bed in his spare room and wiggled around happily. She was wearing an old T Shirt of his that was much to big for her and a pair of boxers, which she had neatly bunched up around the waist and tied a rubber band around in one corner to prevent them from falling off. She was a knock out in her own clothes, beautiful with everything clinging onto all the right places and accentuating all the right curves. However In his clothes she was breathtaking. A mixture of both adorable and attractive all rolled into one perfect package of frizzy golden hair, rosy cheeks, pouty pink lips and bright blue eyes. He may have heard her voice and spotted her legs first but that face. That face was everything. She had become more relaxed and unguarded around him and that wonderfully expressive face was pulling all sorts of unspeakably cute expressions. That face was going to be the death of him.

“This is exciting! Almost like going on a school camp. I feel like a kid again.” Felicity rolled up and down the bed, enjoying the space that was afforded to her.

Pleased as he was to see her enthusiasm and obvious happiness, Oliver decided it was only prudent to quickly quash down any alarming insinuations of friendship. He had stumbled around awkwardly enough trying to ask her out, he sure as hell didn’t want to end up accidentally forging some sort of platonic friendship with her. He needed to make his intentions loud and clear.

“Err Felicity, just so we’re clear, I…uh…I respect your views on one night stands and err am happy for you to take charge. But this is not going to be a platonic thing right? Because I do not want to be platonic friends with you.”

He shifted around uncomfortably, suddenly feeling out of place in his own home. Before he could work out what was happening, he was hauled onto the bed with a warm and soft Felicity straddling his lap, kissing him like her air supply depended on it. He found himself rather stunned for a few seconds however when he detected tongue Oliver kissed her back with equal abandon.

“Does this feel platonic to you?” Felicity asked saucily, draping herself over him, as she continued to give him playful little kisses with a wicked smile on her face. 

“This is not definitely not Disney rated,” Oliver declared as he gripped onto her and rolled her over onto her back. He propped his elbows up on the bed, his face inches from hers. He was hoping to channel a sexy smolder (something he had perfected down to an art in his Ollie days), alas the smolder did not come and in its place was a set of hopelessly smitten heart eyes. Oliver could feel his face looking stupid but he was beyond caring at this point. He wanted her (and the world) to know how he felt about her. Besides he took great comfort in the way her eyes were shining as she smiled at him. They were both giddy. 

“I…uh…should…um…get going. Make the waffle batter so it can sit until morning.” He kissed her softly, taking time to bask in her loveliness and nuzzled her nose for good measure before reluctantly tearing himself away from her.

“Good night Oliver.” Felicity pulled him in for another kiss before letting go of him. She looked like she was torn between saying goodnight and asking him to stay. Oliver tugged back the covers and motioned for her to crawl under the sheets. Once she was all snuggled in, he tucked the covers in tightly around her and kissed her forehead. 

“Good night Felicity.”

***

“Morning,” Oliver called cheerfully as Felicity trudged out into the kitchen. Felicity was a lot of things but a morning person she was not. It took all of her willpower to brush her teeth and smooth her hair before dragging herself out to follow her nose into the kitchen where she could smell the wonderful aromas of coffee and waffles.

This was precisely why she had thought staying the night was a bad idea. She hadn’t even gone on a proper date with Oliver in public yet and here she was schlepping around his house looking like something the cat dragged in. Ugh how did he look so cheerful and male model-ish at this time of the day? Felicity attempted to smile back at him through heavy lidded eyes knowing fully well they were not sexy heavy lidded eyes, just sleepy under caffeinated ones. Still judging by the somewhat smitten look that he had on his face as he handed her a mug of coffee, Felicity assumed that whatever it was she had going was working for him.

Oliver couldn’t help grinning from ear to ear as he ushered Felicity to a chair at the dining table and proceeded to fuss over her, setting down a plate of freshly made waffles, artfully arranged and offering her a variety of toppings and syrup. Felicity thanked him happily, tucked into her waffles and coffee all while treating him to a series of warm sleepy smiles that did strange things to his heart. Ever since their meeting he had been the first to admit that he was hopelessly attracted to her and was willing to go to great lengths to woo her. However standing there in his kitchen with a deliciously rumpled and adorable Felicity scarfing down his food while occasionally pausing to tell him how wonderful he was, well it was just too overwhelming.

It delighted him in ways he could not comprehend. After so many years of wondering if there was something more, of hoping he’d feel something more, suddenly sparkle and sunshine had entered his life in the form of one Felicity Smoak. He had been tempted by women before, in fact as his ex girlfriend could attest to, he had been tempted by many women to the point where he found it virtually impossible to not give into temptation. However he had never been besotted by anyone in his entire life as he was with Felicity. Oliver felt he could sit here, listen to her speak and watch her pull cute faces for an eternity and he’d be happy. And the miracle was that these feelings did not frighten him. Rather than try to understand or analyse them, Oliver settled for making heart eyes at Felicity while she ate and explained the new software she was building to him.

*** 

Felicity and Oliver were mid conversation when his intercom buzzed and the voice of an impatient Diggle could be heard asking Oliver why he was not responding to any text messages and that they were late for their usual Saturday workout.

“That’s Mr. Diggle,” Felicity cried suddenly looking panicked. “Mr. Diggle is coming up here?”

“Relax Felicity. I completely forgot about my standing gym date with him on Saturdays and to be honest my phone has been temperamental ever since I tried to soak it in that latte to get your attention.”

Felicity, momentarily forgetting that she was vexed by John’s sudden appearance, looked at him sharply. “You did what? Correct me if I heard wrong but did you just say you soaked your phone in a latte to get my attention? Oliver! What were you thinking! I thought the yanked out cables and the home automation story was bad enough. Why would you go around destroying a perfectly new phone?”

“Let me buzz John up so I can ask him to let me off the hook this week and then I’ll explain it all to you.” He wondered how he was going to talk his way out of this one. If there was anything he had learned about Felicity in the last few days it was that she had a great love for technology and any attempts to willfully destroy it was most likely going to be met with a severe talking to from her. Still he didn’t mind her loud voice. He had a theory that an angry Felicity was going to be all kinds of hot. He just hoped she wasn’t going to be cross enough to cancel their date tonight.

Fortunately Felicity was once again too preoccupied with her panic over the appearance of John, to further pursue the case against Oliver and his willful destruction of technology.

“I need to hide,” she yelped. “You need to get rid of all evidence that I have been here. I know! I’ll go and hide in your spare room until the coast is clear.” She was about to make a move to high tail it when Oliver caught her gently and spun her around to face him. 

“Felicity, John and I are business partners, not life partners. Why are you taking off like you’re my mistress who has been caught by the wife.” He couldn’t help but let out an amused chuckle as Felicity peered around shiftily as if she expected John to materialize at any moment.

“Because I am in your house, wearing your clothes and no underwear,” she finally whispered looking scandalized.

Oliver couldn’t resist letting out another burst of laughter. “And what does that have to do with John at all?”

“I try so hard to make a good impression on Mr. Diggle! I don’t want him to think that I spent the night here and that you and I did it!”

“Felicity we didn’t do anything and you’re a grown woman. You can spend the night anywhere you like and do anything with anyone you like.” Oliver was slightly amused in knowing that Felicity, despite not knowing John well, was also well and truly afraid of the Diggle judgment. Really they had so much in common already.

He smiled and added for good measure, “Although I hope that I’m the only person you’d want to do anything with from now on and in the future.” 

“I don’t mean to read too much into this but did you just ask me to be your girlfriend?” Felicity beamed at him, forgetting about her Diggle crisis for a moment. “I thought when you asked me out last night that we were just seeing each other. God knows I haven’t dated in a billion years. I was thinking I’d have to have an awkward conversation with you about my zero tolerance for seeing multiple people at once.”

Oliver, being only human leaned over and kissed her thoroughly before he was able to say anything. “Felicity have you met you? How could you think I’d want to see anyone ever again after having met you?” 

Felicity’s face flushed beautifully at his comment, making her look like a rose in bloom.

“OLIVER OPEN THE DOOR!” Diggle bellowed just as Oliver was about to lean in to give Felicity another kiss.

“Yes!” Felicity shouted before making a dash to grab her plate and piling it with some more crispy waffles and fresh berries.

“Yes?” Oliver echoed back looking confused.

“Yes to being your girlfriend but no to facing Mr. Diggle’s judgment,” Felicity called out to him as she sprinted for his spare room, armed with her waffles, fruit, the bowl of whipped cream and a pot of jam. “Pretend I’m not here and I’ll come back out when he’s gone.”

*** 

“What took you so long?” John huffed crossly as Oliver opened the door to let him in. 

“John I’m sorry but I need to cancel our workout this morning. Something came up so you go right ahead without me.”

John didn’t respond right away but merely gave Oliver a look before surveying the spread on the dining table critically. Oliver groaned internally. John was an ex soldier, one who prided himself in his skills of deduction and analyzing people and their behaviors. There was no hiding anything from John Diggle’s sharp eyes.

“Something you want to tell me Oliver? You have someone over here? Is that why you bailed on me?” John watched him calmly as he spoke. He wasn’t cross or annoyed, he merely looked like he was having a rolling good time trapping Oliver.

“What makes you think that?” Oliver asked, shoving his hands into his pockets, attempting to sound casual.

“Oh don’t be silly Oliver. Right now there is only one thing, or to be precise one person that can make you bail on your Saturday gym routine. Judging by the contents on that table and the coffee cup that’s left behind I’m guessing Felicity is hiding in your bedroom somewhere.”

“How…how did you know?” Oliver asked looking genuinely befuddled.

“Oliver since the day you’ve met that girl, all you’ve done is come up with ridiculous schemes to woo her and ply her with food. The waffles gave away that it was her.” John shook his head and gave Oliver an amused smile. “I know you yanked your computer wires out the other day so you could call her up with some technological sob story. What I can’t work out is how or why she would fall for your nonsense.”

“I didn’t!” Felicity’s voice piped up as she sheepishly stepped out into the kitchen. She had changed back to her clothes from the night before and was speaking with a renewed confidence. Clothes did really help make a woman. There was no way she could face Mr. Diggle in Oliver’s boxers and T Shirt.

“I let him have his space to ask me out but when he tried to rope me in for home automation I decided to put him out of his misery. Good morning Mr. Diggle. Nice to see you again.” She flashed John a friendly yet somewhat sheepish smile and extended her hand.

“Thank God one of you has some common sense,” John laughed as he gave her hand a warm squeeze. “No more Mr. Diggle nonsense. Call me John or Digg,” he instructed. 

“Okay then,” Felicity beamed at him. “Are you staying for breakfast John? Oliver makes the best crispy waffles. They are deeeelicious with jam and cream topped with berries.”

John smiled at Felicity and turned his head to Oliver who was frantically shooting him a look that was equal parts pleading and menacing at the same time.

“Thank you for the invite Felicity but I have a gym session to get to. You kids have fun.” He gave them a huge smile and a pat on the back each before exiting the apartment.

  


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity consumate their relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!
> 
> I'm back with another instalment of happy Olicity! I love writing this story because I feel so cheerful as I'm writing and editing it! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

“Felicity what are you doing?” Oliver whispered as Felicity straddled him and proceeded to remove her clothes. They had opted to stay in tonight so that he could cook them dinner instead of going out. Anytime with Felicity was bliss in his world but he especially enjoyed these dates at home because that meant lots of snuggling and kissing. Usually Felicity kept her clothes on though.

“Making the first move,” Felicity responded, discarding her bra over her shoulder where it landed on his coffee table. “It’s been a month Oliver. I think we can take the next step don’t you?” She tilted her head and gave him a cheeky smile while her fingers worked on unbuttoning his shirt.

“No,” Oliver declared in panic, wincing when he realized how loud his voice was.

“No?” Felicity flashed him an incredulous look. “Oliver, correct me if I’m wrong but did you not ask me to be your girlfriend the other week? Did you not soak your phone in a latte in an attempt to get close to me? Did you not declare that you had no wish to be platonic friends with me?”

“I’m not ready,” Oliver blurted out, desperately trying to search for the right words. Damnit what was wrong with him? He had game. He owned a nightclub! Oliver could feel himself on the edge of another outburst as he stared at Felicity like a deer in the headlights.

Felicity to her credit regained her composure and simply smiled at him serenely as she gave a little grind against his erection before stating calmly, “Well you feel more than ready.”

Oliver couldn’t resist chuckling despite the hole he had managed to dig for himself. Felicity always knew how to handle him. No wonder he loved her so much. Love. That was it. He was in love with Felicity. That was why he was losing his marbles and running around doing foolish irrational things. Didn’t that Shakespeare fellow write a bunch of stuff about how love made people crazy? He beamed at Felicity adoringly and watched as she smiled back encouragingly at him. There she was on his lap topless after he had just refused to have sex with her and yet she wasn’t angry or offended. She was handling him in the way that only Felicity could and that was why he loved her.

Although the revelation hit him suddenly, it also lifted a huge burden off his shoulders and he found his words easily. “I want our first time to be special. Magical even. I know it sounds stupid but it’s you and I want my first time with you to mean something.”

“Oliver,” Felicity held his face in her hands and rubbed her nose against his, “You are the sweetest thing on Earth and I adore you but I’m a grown woman. You don’t have to think about it so much. Just…relax.” Felicity was carding his hair gently as she moved to kiss him.

“It’s for me,” he blurted out. “This is my big romance!” There. He had admitted it. Now let the chips fall where they may. 

“Oh Oliver,” Felicity sighed with a smitten look in her eyes. “I lov….I really really like you.” She snuggled against his chest and Oliver could not resist admiring the view of her boobs. Such nice boobs they were. Silky smooth and so perky, like pillowy mountains. If this weren’t his big romance, he’d make a grab for one of them right now. Damnit he liked to self-sabotage sometimes.

“Is there anything I can do to help you with this big moment you seem to be building up?” Felicity was always so practical. She was his knight in shining armor in a princess body. And what a body it was. He snuck another peek at her chest before responding.

“Have dinner with me this weekend? I’ll buy new sheets in a colour scheme that you like. Maybe pink? Buy you new pajamas, towels, hairbrush, shampoo. I’ll set the room up and cook you dinner?” Oliver’s eyes sparkled as he spoke. Clearly he had given this a lot of thought. Oliver Queen was a pile of mush because of her. Suddenly Felicity found everything rather overwhelming.

“I know you feel strongly about this and it all sounds wonderful but don’t you think you’re putting a bit too much pressure on yourself Oliver,” she asked tentatively. “Because I like you for you, I don’t need you to go all out to prove anything to me.”

Oliver kissed the top of her head and ran his fingers down her naked back, causing her to shiver in delight. “I want this. When I’m 86 and you’re…er whatever age you’ll be at, it’s too late for me to do math, I want to have this memory while we sit toothless on the porch.”

“I never thought I’d be on your lap, half naked, having a conversation about being toothless,” Felicity chuckled. Bless him he was precious. It was a shame no one got to see this side of him but her.

“I’m really concentrating hard on the toothless thing so I can ignore the fact that I’ve got you half naked on my lap and I’ve just refused you until next week.”

Felicity responded by slyly hitching up so that his line of sight was directly in line with her goods. Oliver stared at them, mesmerized before mumbling, “Felicity you need to pack them away before I give up on romance and maul you.”

***

“I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t let me drive here myself,” Felicity shook her head, despite looking amused as Oliver ushered her into his apartment.  

“Because tonight is our super special date and you deserve to be treated like a lady always,” Oliver responded banding his arms around her waist, pulling her in for a kiss. He missed her. He saw her everyday this week but he’d been anticipating tonight so badly, every moment he was not with her he missed her like crazy.

“You want to skip dinner?” Felicity whispered as she kissed him back. Maybe Oliver did have a point with this romance thing. They had both felt a little needy, a little more desperate this week, in anticipation of tonight.

“We made it through the week. That counts for something right?” Oliver asked with an endearingly eager look on his face.

“Yes it does,” Felicity mumbled as she dragged him by the shirt into the bedroom.

“And I made a three course meal with baked Alaska. That’s an acceptable dinner for our big romantic moment right? Even if we eat it after?”

“The order in which we eat it doesn’t matter at all,” Felicity assured him, kissing him some more, while trying to fumble with the buttons on his shirt at the same time.

They made it to bedroom finally. Oliver kicked the door open and Felicity was greeted with the site of a dimly lit room, illuminated by candles. Rose petals had been scattered generously all over the bed and to top things off a lovely fragrance of grapefruit scented the air.

“Oliver,” she sighed taking in the scene before her. No one had ever treated her like this before and certainly not anyone who looked like the incarnation of a sex god. Suddenly she found the whole thing a bit overwhelming and her eyes grew misty. 

As if reading her thoughts Oliver cupped her face and said earnestly, “You deserve so much more than this but it’s all I could think of for tonight.”

Fearing that she would actually burst into tears if he continued to be any sweeter, Felicity pulled him in for a long deep kiss before pushing him onto the bed.

***

“I am so sorry Felicity. I don’t know why this happened. It’s never happened to me before,” Oliver wailed as he laid with his head on Felicity’s naked lap.

“Stop apologizing you big oaf, we just need to work out the cause of it.” Felicity kissed his head, then his cheeks and finally his lips in an attempt to sooth his poor rankled soul.

Things had started out spectacularly, they exchanged some filthy kisses, lost all their clothes and she was grinding naked on his lap when she suddenly noticed it. “It” being an angry red rash that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

She paused for a few seconds to peer at it curiously, the angry redness spreading out in splotches all over his previously perfect skin. On cue, Oliver removed his lips from her neck and declared with a horrified look on his face, “Felicity, I’m suddenly feeling really hot and itchy.” 

Which had led to their current state. Him lying on her lap while neither of them had a stitch of clothing on.

“I’m diseased,” Oliver moaned morosely. “Diseased! You’re going to leave me after this aren’t you because I’m diseased.”

“Nonsense Oliver,” Felicity reached over and gave his perfectly sculpted naked bottom a firm smack. “Stop being dramatic. You’ve got a case of hives that’s all. And you were fine when I first tore your shirt off so we just need to find the cause.”

Truth be told, apart from feeling utterly sorry for how hard he was taking this, Felicity could see the humour in the situation. What a memory to look back on when they were old and toothless.

“We just have to think. What did you cook for dinner? Did you cook with anything you might be allergic to? I break out like this when I come in contact with nuts.”

“I’m not allergic to anything,” Oliver responded in despair, burying his head further between her thighs. He should be doing this under completely different circumstances, not because he had a case of hives and was hiding.

“What about the rose petals? Are you allergic to flowers?” Felicity patted him lovingly. Poor thing had worked so hard for tonight only to have it backfire on him like this. Oliver should really be banned from making plans. They never seemed to work out for him.

“Not that I know if. I touched them heaps while I was setting up the room and I was fine.”

Felicity’s body suddenly stiffened as she took a few sniffs and peered around the room suspiciously. “Oliver…what did you use to get the room to smell like grapefruit? It’s gorgeous but it’s a really strong grapefruit smell.”

“I went to one of those smelly shops where Thea buys her smelly oils and scents from and I bought a bottle of some sort of grapefruit oil and squirted it all over the sheets.”

“Aha! It’s the oil!” Felicity shouted excitedly, causing his head to dislodge from her thighs. “We’re going to do a test and see if you’re allergic to that oil. I’m 99% sure that it caused your rash when your bare skin came in contact with it but lets test my theory out so you can feel better about things.” She bent down to kiss his head again before cooing “Poor baby” comfortingly. 

***

Five minutes later Oliver and Felicity found themselves in his spare bedroom (still naked), Oliver now with an additional angry patch of rash on his wrist where Felicity had dabbed a tiny bit of the grapefruit oil for experimental purposes.

“See now you know that you’re not diseased,” Felicity said soothingly, kissing him on the cheek. “Why don’t you take a quick shower to scrub that residue oil off your skin and set up dinner? I’ll pop out to get you some Zyrtec to get rid of the hives and after dinner I can drive us to my place so we can get away from your contaminated room.”

“I’m so sorry Felicity,” Oliver wailed once again. “I really wanted our first time to be memorable.”

“Who says it’s not going to be memorable?” Felicity challenged giving him a saucy wink. “I think you’ve been putting too much pressure on yourself Oliver. Let ME rock your world tonight.” Felicity stood up from the bed and pulled him in for an affectionate hug, resting his face in between her boobs. 

“I love you,” Oliver sighed as he nuzzled his nose into her boobs contently. “I don’t care if it’s too soon to say it, I just do.”

“Well lucky for you I love you too,” Felicity laughed.

*** 

“Felicity. Wow. Wow. I’m REALLY glad I said I love you before THAT because if I didn’t say it before and just said it now, it would look like I only said ‘I love you’ to get more of THAT. Because…WOW,” Oliver rambled, out of breath as he sank back against Felicity’s pillows, looking a little dazed, like he was recovering from some sort of out of body experience.

“Looks like I made someone feel better,” Felicity laughed as she fluttered down next to him and snuggled in his arms. Oliver wrapped his arms around her, still wearing a disoriented expression.

“How did you…where did you…that outfit…I’m never going to look at…certain things the same way again.” He had an aroused but dreamy look in his eyes as he replayed exactly what she had done to him.

“I stumbled on it a few days after you asked me out. I bought it just in case we might want to use it further down the track but you definitely needed some cheering up tonight so…um…yeah.” Felicity found herself blushing suddenly. She was comfortable with her sexuality but Oliver had wanted hearts and rainbows and she had given him…well other things. 

“You know what we still need to do to make this night worthy of toothless reminiscing?” Oliver pounced on her delightedly, as he rolled on top of her, apparently very ready for another round.

“What?” Felicity giggled.

“It’s my turn to rock your world.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe did you like that?
> 
> Poor dumb pine tree, the worse things happen to him! 
> 
> I think this might be the last one folks as I cannot possibly think of any more scrapes that Oliver can get into in this universe.
> 
> ***Shameless plug time***
> 
> For angsty Olicity give my new story a try:
> 
> Four Seasons of Loneliness 
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/12007473/chapters/27170631
> 
> hehe I almost posted this update under FSoL by mistake! hehe what a shock those readers would have received!


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